I can’t relate to the nostalgia some people feel for the toy commercial-disguised-as-kids cartoon G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero, which is to say, I have none. It was a little before my time (the show began airing in 1983, when I was negative-four), and even though I’ve caught up with some of the cartoons over the years, they didn’t do much for me; it’s one of those “you had to be there” things. Now, if Community had parodied Doug, I would have been all about THAT. Well, that’s not exactly true: I was all about “G.I. Jeff,” too.

It took some time, though. At first, the episode seemed like it’d be a straightforward parody of the animated series, making references for reference’s sake. Community is better than that. Granted, those references were broad enough that even a non-watcher like myself found them funny (the poor lip-syncing, the cheap animation, etc.). But after the Rankin/Bass-indebted “Abed’s Uncontrollable Christmas,” we’ve come to expect a certain meaning with our homages, and “G.I. Jeff” not so subtly dropped clues about where it was going before the bombshell actually dropped: Jeff’s 40 years old. OLD MAN WINGER.

Also, he drank too much and swallowed random Korean age-reducing pills (the only thing more depressing than working at a crummy community college? Dying in a crummy community college). Jeff was seeing everything as G.I. Joe because he wanted to be young again, to be a kid who funnels lumps of sugar, a.k.a. cereal, down his throat while watching Captain Grid-Iron not-kill Cobra again. It was surprisingly touching, if maybe a little corny (the animated material > the live action scenes). But lucky for Jeff, and for us, touching boobs and drinking scotch got him out of his funk. Not THAT I can relate to.

You can’t accuse the Community team of not doing their homework, so to speak.

You know the “10,419 Days Since Last Casualty” joke? I read somewhere that if this episode would have premiered last week like it was assumed/supposed to, going back 10,419 days would have taken you to the premiere date of the G.I. Joe cartoon series: September 16, 1985.

I’m slightly young for when G.I. Joe came out, but I still remember watching reruns, and this episode tackled EXACTLY all the issues I had with the damn show. How could a bunch of trained killers never actually kill anyone? At least TMNT made the bad guys robots so they could tear them apart. This episode was fantastic, and I almost cried laughing when Wingman shot up Destro’s parachute.

Remember everyone, those who didn’t like it are pain in the ass Millenials who don’t like that something wasn’t specifically catered to them…. They are the Cobra! The adversary to the real 30+ Americans who are fighting the injustice of Cobra infiltrating our lawn. GI gen-X!

Not to trying to pick a fight but why does every person on the internet have to mention that GI Joe was a toy commercial disguised as a cartoon? EVERY cartoon from the 80’s and 90’s was made to sell toys! If it was a cartoon on a saturday morning or weekday afternoon, it was made to sell toys. The only exceptions are cartoons from cable tv like Nickelodeon. When I see that written it says to me, “I see what they’re doing. They can’t fool me.” It’s just not necessary.

I’m in same ship as Kurp, never watched GI Joe but I understood the references. Wanna talk cheap animation watch 90’s Spiderman on Fox, yeesh. I did enjoy this episode a lot, I found the commercial bits better than anything else honestly. The live action at the end was pretty bad though.

So Jeff is 40, Shirley is presumably the same age (she’s mentioned it a lot in the past), Britta is 33, Annie is 23, I’m not sure Abed’s age has ever been mentioned but I assume 23. Did I get that right?

I absolutely LOVE Venture Bros. To me this was just Venture Bros. with the Community cast since I’m too young to have remembered these commercials really well. Just like I’m too young to appreciate Johnny Quest.

My weekly allowance was $2.50 when I was a kid. The dollar store in my hometown sold GI Joe guys for 2.19 apiece, but had a pretty limited selection. I would buy one new guy a week until I had all the ones they had. GI Joe was absolutely my go to toy for many years.

Ben Franklin! They also had a rotating display of matchbox cars that I would stare at forever. I don’t remember them having actual GI Joes but they sold these great cheap off-brand vehicles that were perfect size for the 3 3/4″ figures.

FYI the store still exists in a couple places but is completely devoted to arts & craft supplies.

Yep. I got a cheapo fighter plane to fight against the Rattler I got for Xmas. I also bought an A team set there that was the right size to hang out with GI Joe. They seemed to sell a little bit of everything for a long time. I guess in a town of 2500 you have to be all things to all people. I didn’t know if they were a chain store or what. I’d never seen another one and the one in my home town is closed up (I think). I remember the Matchbox car display too. That was super cool.

The tail-end of the cartoon run was right in my wheelhouse growing up, and there is probably a half-ton of the hasbro figures collecting dust in my mom’s basement … so to say this episode hit all of my nostalgia chords isn’t doing it justice. I sat there last night for 30 minutes with a look of pure, dumb, joy on my face. Thank you Community.

I give the show serious credit for making Jeff 40. It speaks volumes about us members of Generation X who used to be so relevant and steeped in pop culture, but now have to accept that we’re creeping towards a point where society no longer sees us as a vital demographic.

I loved the hell out of this episode. It tried something different but it didn’t come off like a cheap, desperate gimmick that lesser sitcoms would resort to in their struggling seasons. It turned time-worn conventions on their heads (like toy commercials, of all things) to tell an interesting story.

It was funny as hell and entertaining on top of all that, too. Harmon’s return was much needed here.

I may be way off on this, but I feel like Jeff Winger may have been a bit too old for GI Joe if he is 40. I just turned 41 and this generation of GI Joe was little kid stuff for my age group when it came out and was so popular. Just seems…a stretch…

But then, Dan Harmon is my age, and obviously he was into it, so…I typed this all for nothing, I guess…

I agree with you, but I think it’s mostly a boys thing because I’m 30 and was all in on this episode.

(I think I was born at the perfect time, I got in on the GI Joe and Transformers, peaked with Ninja Turtles, and then made an exit from the toy demo during the Power Rangers before Pokemon turned every kids show into an Anime about random dueling objects)

I’m 42. I gave my six year old sister my last two GI Joes on my 16th birthday. The first run of the GI Joe cartoons was well over by then, though they didn’t have it when I was the age of the kids in the commercials.

For the record, they were Scarlet and a Flash that I’d customized with the bare arms of Tomax and Xamot and a thigh hot glue-mounted cardboard holster for Destro’s blaster.

Same here Evil Twin. I combined my toys and had G.I. Joes teaming up with Turtles against Super Shredder. Felt like I was finally starting to get too old around the Power Rangers. But hell, if I broke out my toys today I bet I would lose an hour or two playing with them again.

33 and the wife turns 30 this year. I remember my brother (just turned 40) had lots of Joe’s and Transformers as did the kids in my neighborhood around my age. Though I think many of them also had older brothers about the same age as mine so they could have been hand-me-downs. I watched plenty of the show in probably 86/7/8 so it was all familiar but a little too old for the wife.

Same boat as Evil Twin: I’m 30 and DEFINITELY was all in on this episode. I remember watching GI Joe reruns and constantly wishing Snake Eyes would be in the episode, but it’d end up being something with Shipwreck or whatever. I also remember stretching the action figures from the waste because they had that weird rubber band thing inside them.

It was super subtle. I only caught it the second time around and pausing it. When they’re panning over the desk showing the bottle of scotch, there’s a note from Pierce that says something like “Welcome to the club”.

I’m glad it seems everyone loved this episode. More viewers for Community it a good thing. That being said, none of this worked for me. I never watched G.I. Joe as a kid so I don’t have that nostalgia, but I never played D&D either and loved those episodes.

I dunno, I think the end of everyone acting like some 80s sitcom (pretty sure I heard Hickey say “ohhhh Winger!”) really turned me off.

@Otto Man I watched GI Joe as a kid, had a handful of those toys, have loved this season of Community, and I still just didn’t like this episode. I laughed most at the disclaimers on the live action commercials.

The scene with everyone (including Hickey) around Jeff’s hospital bed felt forced, odd, and out of place.

@tuggernuts I was expecting some irreverent take on the cliched ending of everyone laughing at the corny joke and patting the lead on the back, but then it just, ended. I literally cringed at the 1889 joke and when it was over said “what the fuck was that?”

@LastTexansFan I had many GI Joes growing up and watched the cartoon and i got up to the first commercial break and stopped. I put on Parks and Rec instead. I might go back and finish it, but I think I’m good just knowing “Okay, Jeff is sad because he’s 40 and can bang Annie if he wants”.